A plane crashed Thursday en route to a remote gold mining region in southern Suriname, killing 19 people, officials in the South American country said. The twin-engine Antonov AN-28, operated by Surinamese carrier Blue Wing Airlines, crashed in the jungle on approach to an airstrip in Benzdorp, near the border with French Guiana, officials said.

In a tit-for-tat move, the government asked Suriname to recall its top diplomat in the Netherlands, the Foreign Ministry announced early today. The diplomatic move late Saturday against Carlo Spier, Suriname's charge d'affaires, was in response to a Surinamese request earlier in the day for the ouster of Dutch Ambassador Dirk Jan van Houten, ministry spokesman Peter van Vliet said.

President Ronald Venetiaan's New Front coalition won the most seats in parliamentary elections but failed to gain the majority needed to elect a new president, preliminary results showed in Suriname. Wednesday's peaceful elections in the former Dutch colony strengthened the hand of Venetiaan's rival, former military strongman and convicted drug dealer Desi Bouterse, whose party more than doubled its number of seats.

A plane crashed Thursday en route to a remote gold mining region in southern Suriname, killing 19 people, officials in the South American country said. The twin-engine Antonov AN-28, operated by Surinamese carrier Blue Wing Airlines, crashed in the jungle on approach to an airstrip in Benzdorp, near the border with French Guiana, officials said.

Big election gains by a pro-army party have clouded the former Dutch colony's future and cast a shadow of uncertainty over its relations with the Netherlands. A coalition representing the East Indian, Creole and Indonesian minorities that make up most of the population of 360,000 in this republic on South America's northeast coast won a majority in parliamentary elections on Saturday.

The U.S. Agency for International Development announced it was suspending aid to Suriname because of a December coup by the army that toppled a democratically elected government. In a statement released by the U.S. Embassy in Paramaribo, Suriname, the agency said it was suspending aid under provisions of the U.S. Foreign Assistance Appropriations Act because of the coup that deposed President Ramsewak Shankar, who was voted into office in 1987.

The scheme was so outlandish it was difficult, at first, to take seriously. Investigators could not believe that the whole preposterous plot would ever get under way, that a former customs agent and 13 other people--almost all of them from small American towns like Sugar Tree, Tenn.--would really set out to take over the South American country of Suriname. But by Monday, when most of the members of the self-styled mercenary group arrived at the tiny airport in Hammond, La.

Striker Dennis Purperhart scored in the 16th minute to lead host Suriname to a surprising 1-1 tie against Guatemala in a first-leg CONCACAF World Cup qualifying match Saturday at Paramaribo. Guatemala, which got a goal in the 35th minute from Dwight Pesarosi, played without injured striker Carlos Ruiz of the Galaxy in a matchup of teams vying for spots from the region covering North and Central America and the Caribbean. The return leg will be in Guatemala on June 20.

The "KA-chunk" of slot machines and the clinking of coins in metal trays fill carpeted rooms where gamblers come to nurse their hopes of riches. These are new sounds in Suriname, where in the past few years casinos have multiplied at an explosive rate, bringing neon signs and crowds to once-quiet avenues lined with Dutch colonial buildings.

Henck Arron, 64, the man who led Suriname to independence from the Netherlands in 1975. After becoming prime minister in 1973, Arron headed independence talks and shocked some in the South American country in 1974 when he predicted that Suriname would gain autonomy within a year. It did. He went on to lead the Suriname National Party for 23 years, during which his government was twice deposed by coups.

There's a new sound in the forest. To the squawk of parrots and the roar of rapids, add rumbles of discontent from native tribes that want to keep out the whine of chain saws. Leaders of this small South American nation, struggling with a sluggish economy and reduced foreign aid, want to let foreign companies start cutting one of the world's largest undisturbed tracts of tropical rain forest.

The army commander who led two coups in Suriname resigned as head of the military Friday amid reports that he used his position to enrich himself, the official Suriname News Agency said. Col. Desi Bouterse rejected suggestions that he is the nation's richest man and denied a Dutch news report this week charging that he used state funds to amass his wealth, SNA said. Bouterse dominated much of the history of Suriname after it became independent from the Netherlands in 1975.

Suriname, a small, isolated nation on the northern edge of South America, has grown into a major narcotics center, serving as a central transshipment point for the growing flow of cocaine to Europe, according to Surinamese and senior U.S. officials and international narcotics experts. Senior U.S. officials and Surinamese opposition leaders say the country is also becoming an important transshipment point for the U.S.

A federal judge in New Orleans sentenced 13 defendants in a thwarted plot to overthrow the military government of Suriname. U.S. District Judge Lansing Mitchell handed down the heaviest penalty, a 2 1/2-year prison term, to Tommy Lynn Denley of Grenada, Miss., the organizer of the scheme. He and two others pleaded guilty to violating the federal Neutrality Act and another pleaded no contest. The others pleaded guilty to misdemeanor weapons charges.

President Ronald Venetiaan's New Front coalition won the most seats in parliamentary elections but failed to gain the majority needed to elect a new president, preliminary results showed in Suriname. Wednesday's peaceful elections in the former Dutch colony strengthened the hand of Venetiaan's rival, former military strongman and convicted drug dealer Desi Bouterse, whose party more than doubled its number of seats.

Big election gains by a pro-army party have clouded the former Dutch colony's future and cast a shadow of uncertainty over its relations with the Netherlands. A coalition representing the East Indian, Creole and Indonesian minorities that make up most of the population of 360,000 in this republic on South America's northeast coast won a majority in parliamentary elections on Saturday.